Because I stayed up til 11pm last night playing Super Meat Boy (guilty pleasure), we didn't get to sleep until after midnight, and didn't get up until 7:30 this morning. Late start on a long day of work.

Worked all day on the tile in the kitchen. Last night's layout helped it go faster. The wife and the carpenter helped too. I was the mud and measurement guy, the wife spaced the layout, and the carpenter made most of the cuts (I cut the center field, but he did the rest).

About 11 am.

About 1 pm.

About 3:30 pm.

About 4:45 pm.

Match the planned layout pretty well, I'd say. The red line is where the new cabinet layout will eventually fall, once it comes back into our budget.

The gaps between tiles will be cleaned out tomorrow evening, followed by grout on Wednesday morning, just in time for the stove to be moved back into the kitchen around noon on Turkey Day.

Would have liked to put everything back on Thursday, but then I'd have to take it all back out to seal the grout later. :\

Spent an hour last night and two hours this morning chiseling out thinset that the wife didn't wipe up while it was still easy and wet. Sigh.

Went to grout this morning - dumped the grout in the bucket, dumped the prescribed amount of water on top, then realized I couldn't find my drill to power the mixer. Aaaahhh! After a 5 minute mad rush to find it, I stirred it all up and brought it inside.

Ding! Hmmm, text message. Friend coming over to see if I can help him install his front license plate, and he just left his house. Oh, great timing. Quickly grouted, then started sponging down the kitchen when he showed up.

Finished sponging down, then install the front license plate on his car, then sponged a second time. Still pretty nasty water coming up.

Lowe's delivery guys showed up. Bought a gas range at Black Friday prices; $999 normally, down to $699 less 10% military discount. With tax and new gas line kit, I paid just over $705 delivered. Also ditched plans for the $1400 stove that the wife wanted in the process. Woot! As an aside, Consumer Reports ranked it the #4 stove in the 30" gas class for home out of 55 models.

Here it is next to the old one that came with the house, which is promptly going on Craigslist to make a few bucks back.

Sold the old range for $100. Was surprised that I got that much for it, considering a cheapie one brand new would probably be in the $300 range and it was 10 years old. Since then, not much has been going on.

Got sucked into a video game or two, I must admit. Helps save up money, though. Too busy playing them to spend it! Today I got off my butt and put the kitchen back together with the carpenter. We're going to have to wait until next year for cabinets and countertops to be back in the budget again.

I marked out the rails for the cabs while he cut them out of 3/4" oak hardwood 7-ply we had left over from the bookcase. Upper cabinets went up quickly, then the lowers, then the countertops.

These are just temporary, and rearranged from their last installation, so some don't have cover panels on the exposed sides. I'm not worried enough about it to make custom ones, since we'll be taking them down in a year.

Need to fabricate a floor transition piece. Everything still needs to be wiped down, sorted, and loaded back into the cabinets. That's tomorrow for the wife.

Spent the rest of the day trying to install a garbage disposer I ordered.

As it turns out, a 1hp garbage disposer is bigger than I pictured it would be. Most homes have a 1/3 or 1/2 hp disposer... this thing is literally at least twice the size of them physically. Picked it up for $88 on a Amazon lightning deal.

Made two trips and got it installed, but realized I needed a few different lengths of pipe 10 minutes after the hardware store closed. :\ Tomorrow!

Been slow going around here. Somewhat bunkered down for the winter months. We're trying to keep the heating bills low putting on sweaters and pajamas when home, and that makes it much easier to just opt for comfort (ex, video games) over housework. Go figure.

Did manage to sell the wood-burning stove I took out to build in the bookcase. Got $225 for it on CraigsList. Many might not remember it by this point.

From the original move-in picture set (July 2011):

And the tile/bookcase that replaced it.

Trying to sell other odds and ends around here to keep the place tidy. Not terribly hard to fill up a 1200 sq ft home with 3 adults living in it.

When we went to put the kitchen back together, I had to hook up the sink. As it turns out, the cartridge on the hot side had pretty much hardened up solid. Almost zero hot water flow, even after letting it run "full blast" for two hours.

The old one was builder-grade, so you can imagine it was cheaply made. The sprayer was calcified over and would only let a single jet hole give any water.

Removed it, scrubbed up all the putty and minerals stuck to the sink, then installed a new Delta Leland unit with a soap dispenser.

I was surprised that this one had integrated PEX hoses that connect all the way down to the tee and valve; most faucets I've installed require two braided supply hoses, usually sold separately for $10 each or so. That's $20 that I didn't have to spend.

We're very happy with it. Good, strong flow on the hot. Aerates well to make the 1.5 gpm flow rate feel like more. It's deeper, so the water hit around the middle of the bowl, where the old one hit the back 1/4 of the bowl. It's also a pull-down, so cleaning the sink afterwards is much easier than before.

The weight does a good job of bringing the head back up without using any muscle and it has a magnet in the head of the pipe that locks the nozzle in the up position when not pulled down. No droopy faucet here!

I knew I had a few days before the faucet was going to arrive, so I started looking around for a garbage disposer sale. Really wanted a 3/4 or 1 hp In-Sink-Erator (ISE) Evolution Essential or Evolution Excel. They're super quiet and seem pretty dependable. At $250+, they better be! No such luck finding one on sale.

The next day, I received a deal alert for a Waste King 8000 on Amazon. At $88 (normally $118), this 1 hp beast was a steal.

I did have to compromise a bit. The outer case is plastic instead of stainless, so it doesn't look as nice when you open the doors. It also is slightly louder, but still quieter than the 1/3 hp Badger models that come in most new homes. At 1/3 the price of the comparable Evolution Excel, I can deal with it. :D

The only pain was re-plumbing because there was no disposer previously. That took me two days (needed 1 more part, it was 5:15pm, and the neighborhood hardware store closed at 5:00pm) and was frustrating, but I think it was pretty worth it.

So, the kitchen faucet is a Delta Leland, and the pot filler is a Delta as well. The next bathroom faucet will probably be a Delta also. Everything is stainless. Might as well get matching accessories if the price is right, right? Well, that's what I did.

Picked up 4 robe hooks, two towel rings and a toilet paper dispenser. Everything now matches.

Moved the location of the toilet paper holder so you don't have to reach behind you to get to the toilet paper. The three robe hooks replaced a 14" towel bar that was missing... the towel bar. Essentially, we've only had space for two towels for the last year and a half. Not the best situation in a house with three adults... the wife had been asking for a towel bar for quite some time.